--- title: Princess Diana's Death: Read Original 1997 Special Report description: "It was a bad accident," an observer told TIME Magazine shortly after. "The car was crushed and tilted up against the wall." canonical: https://time.com/4916157/special-report-princess-diana-death/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-31T13:00:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:10:05.342Z article:section: History og:title: Read TIME's Original 1997 Special Report on the Death of Princess Diana og:description: "It was a bad accident," an observer told TIME Magazine shortly after. "The car was crushed and tilted up against the wall." og:url: https://time.com/4916157/special-report-princess-diana-death/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt392da98fab53b27d/6988db38196cf436b8041a32/1101970908_400.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 400 og:image:height: 225 og:image:alt: Sep. 8, 1997 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read TIME's Original 1997 Special Report on the Death of Princess Diana twitter:description: "It was a bad accident," an observer told TIME Magazine shortly after. "The car was crushed and tilted up against the wall." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt392da98fab53b27d/6988db38196cf436b8041a32/1101970908_400.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read TIME's Original 1997 Special Report on Princess Diana's Death > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=16ac1cce-9c36-4a4b-b490-4c7cf4c7a7de&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=16ac1cce-9c36-4a4b-b490-4c7cf4c7a7de&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1)  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Aug 31, 2017 1:00 PM UTC  The Sep. 8, 1997, cover of TIME The Sep. 8, 1997, cover of TIME Cover Credit: MARK LENNIHAN / AP  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Aug 31, 2017 1:00 PM UTC The passersby in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997 — precisely 20 years ago this Thursday — knew right away that they had heard the sound of something terrible happening. It would take a little while longer for them, and the rest of the world, to realize the depths of the [loss](http://time.com/4899497/princess-diana-prince-william-harry-legacy/) contained in that crash, the sound of a car hitting concrete, with [Princess Diana](http://time.com/4879138/diana-princess-remembered/) inside. Her death arrived early that morning, several hours after the crash that also killed Dodi al Fayed and driver Henri Paul (who, it was [determined](http://time.com/vault/issue/1997-09-22/spread/34/), had been intoxicated). In the days, weeks, years and now decades that followed, those who knew her and those who only knew her work would mourn the [potential](http://time.com/4914377/princess-diana-humanitarian-work/) that had been so suddenly cut off. But, at the beginning, there were also many questions about just how such an accident had happened. Those were some of the issues tackled in TIME’s special report the following week, which [explained](http://time.com/vault/issue/1997-09-08/spread/30/) just what was known at that time to have happened: --- > “” --- As the writer Martin Amis [put it](http://time.com/vault/issue/1997-09-15/page/64/) in a commemorative issue the following week, her death was a “fixing moment” in the lives of many. “You will always remember,” he wrote, “where you were and who you were with when you heard this news.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4916157/special-report-princess-diana-death/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4916157/special-report-princess-diana-death/"},"headline":"Read TIME's Original 1997 Special Report on Princess Diana's Death","datePublished":"2017-08-31T13:00:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:10:05.342Z","description":"\"It was a bad accident,\" an observer told TIME Magazine shortly after. \"The car was crushed and tilted up against the wall.\"","url":"https://time.com/4916157/special-report-princess-diana-death/","keywords":["remembrance","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt392da98fab53b27d/6988db38196cf436b8041a32/1101970908_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt392da98fab53b27d/6988db38196cf436b8041a32/1101970908_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sep. 8, 1997","caption":"Sep. 8, 1997","creditText":"Cover Credit: MARK LENNIHAN / AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4916157/special-report-princess-diana-death/","name":"Read TIME's Original 1997 Special Report on Princess Diana's Death"}}]}] ```